The Library Doesn’t Lead to Good Things?
by Anna-Cate
Summary: One-Shot. James finds Lily in the library. She needs help with her Transfiguration essay, and he is only too happy to help...


Whoever Said That The Library Doesn't Lead to Good Things?

'James, will you just _go_ away!!' I yelled at the messy haired boy standing in front of me, his drenched quidditch robes leaving a growing puddle on the stone floor of the library.

He just chuckled at me, and leaned against one of the shelves.

I growled at him, and shoved my head back down over my notes, hoping that he would just go away if I ignored him. Ten minutes later he was still leaning against the cabinet, studying his fingernail, and looking more like a Greek God than anyone had the right to. Realising I was getting distracted I grabbed my notes again.

I let out a huge sigh. This is pointless! I will never be able to finish this Transfiguration essay by tomorrow. I don't even understand what I'm supposed to be doing!

'You can ask for my help at any time you know' James's teasing voice floated through my incessant grumbling of how ridiculous Transfiguration was anyway. I ignored his offer. Lily Evans does not except help. I need to do this by myself.

'This is going to be a long night' James moaned, pulling out the chair next to me, and plonking himself down.

'Well feel free to leave at anytime. You're distracting me anyway.' James smiled and puffed out his chest at this, as if it was a compliment.

'Oh yes, because you seem to have done so much work before I got here.' He teased, picking up my parchment. 'Oh yes, 'Explain the rule which states that objects cannot be transfigured into food'. Looks like you had gotten _so_ far before I came.'

'Oh shut up' I snapped, ripping the parchment back out of his hand. 'Did you come up here just to point out how much I suck at Transfiguration?'

'No. Mainly I just came up here to gloat at how brilliant_ I_ am at it.' He laughed at my attempts to push him off his chair. Stupid quidditch. I put all my strength into that. 'Can't resist the urge to feel me up there, Evans?' he asked, pointedly looking at my hand that I still hadn't moved off my chest.

I blushed and grudgingly removed my hand from his toned chest, and tried to turn my attention back to my essay. I dipped my quill in my ink, and hovered it over my parchment. And now I'm stuck. James laughed at me again. 'I'm right here you know. All you have to do is ask.' James said, leaning back in his chair, ruffling his soaking hair so that a shower of raindrops fell over my work. I blushed again at the double meaning in his words.

Madame Pince, the new librarian stuck her head around the corner, and glared at James for daring to enter her library in such dirty attire. She narrowed her eyes at me, and said 'an hour to closing.'

'Thanks' I murmured back. That woman has a problem. _Why become a librarian if she doesn't like other people touching her books? _Sending one last disgusted glare at James she backed slowly away, eyes never leaving the pile of _her _books that sat in front of me.

'1 hour, Evans. You're not really gonna turn up to McGonagall's lesson without her essay are you?' The humour was very much apparent in James' eyes, as he blackmailed me into asking him for help.

'I really don't like you' I sniffed at Potter. He just laughed. Merlin, would he stop doing that. It was so sexy, and it shook his chest so that I found myself mesmerised by the movement.

Swallowing my self-pride I looked up at James. 'Help?' I asked. He laughed again. He did that a lot. I never really noticed before.

'Awww, you look so adorable when your helpless' he said, ruffling my hair. When he withdrew his hand he was looking down at me, like a child who knew he had done something wrong, and was waiting to be punished. For once I found his actions and words sweet rather than irritating.

'So, what do I need to do?' I pushed him.

'Oh, yeah. Right.' He jumped, seeming to have forgotten that I needed help. 'Umm, let me have a look at your notes.' I passed them over. He read the first line, and plucking my quill from my hand, started scribbling corrections all over it, chuckling at some of the worse hiccups.

As he worked I watched silently, looking at the way his eyes tightened marginally whenever he was concentrating. When he was considering how to word something, his lips squeezed together just a fraction. When something made him chuckle, his chest would shake slightly, his lips would pull up at the corners and his head would shake just enough to ruffle his hair.

After 15 minutes of scribbling he pushed the notes back to me. 'Now I see why you were having problems' he chuckled. 'All your information is conflicting. Who'd you get your notes from, anyway?' he asked.

'How do you know I didn't write them?' I asked, wondering how he always knew this stuff.

'It's not your handwriting' he said, looking at me like he thought hit should have been obvious.

'Oh'

'And, of course, you weren't in the lesson.' Once that simple statement would have freaked me out, I mean _stalker_! But now the fact that James had noticed that I was missing made me smile.

'Umm, I got them off Sirius' I said, 'I figured he's good at Transfiguration.' James laughed out loud at this.

'He is! But when have you ever seen Sirius take notes? He normally takes Remus's but he was at the prefect meeting with you, so he had to borrow some Hufflepuffs.' James explained. 'Anyway, better get cracking on that essay.' James said, rubbing his hands together.

30 minutes later I was practically done with the essay. Amazing how much quicker work is when you have someone to help you. I don't know why I haven't asked James for help with homework before. I slumped down onto the table as I finally finished the conclusion.

'Ahh! Done!' I exclaimed, ludicrously happy. James extracted the parchment out for under me, and gave me a thumbs up after scanning it through.

'Nice one, Evans. We make a good team.' He grinned at me.

'Sure. And if you ever need help with potions or anything, I'm here' I offered, very aware of how much trouble James saved me from.

'I may have to take you up on that' James admitted. 'Golpalott's Third Law? Baffled.' I laughed at his confused expression, as he murmured the definition to himself, reminding me very much of a mountain troll.

'No problem.'

James beamed down at me.

'Phew, 'cause I was freaking out a tad about that. Slughorn seemed to just presume that everyone understood it. My antidote blew up in my face.' I giggled as I remembered watching James trying to put out his burning eyebrows with the Aguamenti charm. He ended up soaking Sirius and Remus who were sitting in the row behind, and very singed eyebrows. I laughed even harder as I watched Potter subconsciously rubbing his now full eyebrows again.

'Err, Evans? You alright?' James asked uncertainly, watching me collapsed on the table in fits of laughter.

'I'm... fine' I said, once I gathered control of myself. There was a rummaging of books in the shelf behind James, and I jumped as a pair of beady eyes appeared in a gap between two large volumes. 'Umm, maybe we should go now?' I suggested to James, slightly scared of what Madame Pince would do to us if we stayed here a minute after closing time. James seemed to cotton on fast, as he handed me my (thankfully) completed essay, and grabbed his broomstick in one hand, my hand in the other, and rushed out. As soon as we were outside he shook himself.

'Wow, I can't believe Sirius was right.'

'What?' I asked.

'Oh, he thinks that the library is infectious. Makes you become a bookworm if you stay in there for any extended period of time, and I have to admit, I was feeling the pull there for a minute.' He said jumping around, and flicking of invisible responsibilities form his shoulders.

When he was finished ridding himself of signs of infection he started walking off down the corridor, pulling me along behind him. 'What's with that new librarian anyway? It's like 9'oclock. Why is she closing it so early? She need to tuck the books in, and read them goodnight stories?' he asked, chuckling slightly at his own joke.

'James, curfew is 9. If it stayed open any later the students would be breaking it. I mean, I know you have little regard for the rules, but I didn't realise you didn't even know the ones that you break.' I said, trying desperately to find my lecturing tone, but I couldn't manage it. What's wrong with me?! It's like hanging around James has taken away my morale code.

'What's the point in living in such a great place, if you spend all your time studying, and no time exploring?' James asked, and I had to admit, it was a reasonable argument.

Clearly taking my silence for acceptance, he smiled down at me. 'You hungry?' he asked randomly.

'Umm, yeah I suppose. Why?'

'Good, I'm ravenous.' James said, and pulled me through a tapestry and into a small flight stairs.

'Umm, where are we going?' I asked confused. We were going _down_, and the common room was_ up_.

'Lily, my dear, we are going exploring.' He said mysteriously. But I have to admit, I was kind of excited. Maybe James would show me one of the cool places that only the marauders seemed to know about.

*~*~*

I am confused. And lost. James has been tugging me down a lot of random corridors, stair cases and passageways that I have never seen before. Every now and then he looks back at me and grins, and I swear, I nearly collapse every time. _I mean, what in Merlin's name is wrong with me?_

'_Jaaaames_' I moaned after he pulled me behind yet another tapestry 'where the hell are we going? Doing you even know where we are?' I demanded.

'Ahhh, Lily, do you really have that little faith in me? I know _exactly _where we are.' He said, turning to wink at me.

'And that would be?' I prodded.

'Here!' he exclaimed, twirling round and coming to such an abrupt stop that I smashed right into his chest.

I blushed, and begrudgingly removed my head from its extremely comfy position. 'And where is 'here'?' I snapped to cover my embarrassment.

Potter seemed to see through my suddenly poor mood however, and reached up to ruffle his hair. 'You'll like it Evans, if what I have seen of you at dinner is anything to go by' he chuckled. He turned around and tickled a large green pear that was painted in a silver fruit bowl. It emitted a high giggle, and promptly turned into a door handle, which he seized and pulled the door open. 'TaDA!' he exclaimed, holding his arm wide in front of him.

I felt my jaw drop the floor as walked in. 'We're in the kitchens?' I asked, stunned.

'Yup' James replied nonchalantly. 'One of my favourite places in the world' he said, picking up an éclair from one of many platters that were floating around him. I laughed out loud as I realised that they weren't floating, but there was a number of house elves holding them above their heads to reach Potters great height. They had no need when they held out a tray of crumpets for me.

I smiled and picked one up, and watched as Potter attempted to inhale 3 cream cakes at once.

I couldn't decide wither I should laugh or cringe away in disgust as I watched Potter gulp down platter after platter of lasagne, mashed potato, steak pie and chicken drum sticks.

'Wontewwuntsum?' he grunted at me halfway through his personal feast, causing me to step back out of the spraying zone and nod as if I had a clue what he just said. My personal motto is of you don't understand, just nod and smile.

After his revolting midnight snack, James brushed all the crumbs from his now dry, but extremely mud encrusted quidditch robes, and led the way over to the exit.

As we left he picked up a pile of chocolate éclairs to 'keep him energised' on the way back. Seriously, I don't know where he puts it all! I looked him up and down, as he strode along through another twisted maze of shortcuts, on the way back to the Gryffindor common room. I imagined the muscles hidden under his robes, due to his small infatuation with Quidditch. And the way his hands would feel on my waist, and other places... The way his lips would feel under mine. Whoah! Hold that thought. In fact SCRAP that thought! Completely forget it! This is _Potter_ I'm thinking about here.

Jeez, I must be suffering from sleep deprivation.

'Oww!' I whimpered as my nose collided with Potters broad back. 'What are you doing?' I asked James, alarmed at the sudden stop.

'Shhh!' he demanded, places his hand over my mouth, and pulling me into him, so that my back was pressed against his chest, and his free arm was snaked around my waist, stopping me from getting away. I struggled for a while, shaking my hips, and licking James's hand, but when I heard the voices coming, I stopped immediately.

Oh crap! It's after hours! I knew this was too good to be true! We're going to get detention, or be shouted at! Or, expelled! OMM, OMM! I can't believe I let Potter talk me into this!

We were standing right in the middle of the 3rd floor charms corridor, and there were definite, _adult_ voices approaching us.

With a sharp pull James pulled us back into one of the shallow alcoves that ran down the corridor, and unwinding his hand form my waist, pulled something out of his pocket and draped it over us. It was shiny, silky and see-through, but I couldn't concentrate on trying to work out what it was exactly and why _we weren't running_, when all my mind could process was the emptiness at my waist where James's hand had been.

My heart began beating erratically as Professor McGonagall and Professor Slughorn began walking down the corridor, straight towards us. My heart felt like it was about to beat straight out of my chest. _Why are we just standing here? _

I couldn't quite believe it when they walked straight past us. Didn't even look in our direction. They should have seen us, we should be getting yelled at,_ expelled_, right now! Then it all clicked. How they hadn't seen us, how Potter and his posse managed to sneak around at night without getting caught. _An invisibility cloak_. I was shocked but also... impressed. I hadn't thought Potter had the ability to not brag about something as amazing as this, or the smarts to keep it a secret for so long.

'Ummm, Evans?' James asked timidly. 'Do you mind unclenching your teeth from my fingers?' he said in a teasing tone, but as I managed to unclasp my jaw, realised that he must have been in pain. There were teeth marks.

'Oops'I breathed. He shrugged nonchalantly.

I twisted around so that I was looking up at him, and I have to say, it was rather a way up. He chuckled, reading the thought clearly on my face.

I giggled as I looked up at him. 'You have cream on your nose' I pointed out, wiping it off with the tip of my finger. Then I rubbed it on his robes.

'Ahh, thanks' he said sarcastically. I just smiled; too preoccupied with watching the way his lips moved when he talked. We were so close; it would be so easy to...

I reached up on my tiptoes and brushed my lips very lightly over his. He didn't move, and I was scared that I had done something wrong. _He does like me doesn't he? _I left it a moment, and he was still frozen in place. _Oh Merlin, what have I done?!_

Then he came alive, and a breath taking grin broke across his features, lighting up his hazel eyes. Needing no more encouragement he captured my chin with his finger, and lifted my face up to meet his.

It was so sweet, and everything your first kiss with a boy should be like.

Then things got a bit more serious. His hand moved from my chin down to my waist, where his other hand met it. I wound my hands into his hair, and sighed with relief. After all this time of wondering, I finally found out what his hair feels like: even better than I had imagined.

My head was tilted fully back, and I was up on my tiptoes, but James still had to stoop a little to reach me, and I could feel my legs going weak. I was totally relying on James to hold me up. Sensing this he twirled us around, so that my back was resting up against the wall.

James began trailing kisses down my neck, as I stroked the soft hair at the top of his neck. I moaned as he began nibbling my skin lightly at the base of my neck, and I felt his lips curl into a smile as he brought his lips back to mine.

Far too soon we broke apart, gasping for air. I took in James appearance. Mussed up hair, ruffled robes, and kiss swollen lips. I'd never seen him look so sexy. How have I been saying no to this boy for so long?

Smiling down at me like he had just won the lottery, James bent down to pick up the discarded cloak, and offered his hand to me. I didn't move, pouting like a stubborn child.

'Don't worry Lily' James assured me in his husky voice. 'There will be plenty of time for this tomorrow. I still need help with my potions essay, remember?' James teased, grabbing my hand his overly large, warm one, and yanking me forward into his arms for a bear hug. His arms pulled me in tight to his toned torso, and I squeezed myself further in, my head resting on his warm chest, breathing in his amazing scent. I felt so small in his arms. Like a china doll. Vulnerable. And precious. I loved it.

'Come, on' he murmured, kissing the top of my head, 'let's go.'

Whoever said that the library leads to good things was a liar. It leads to amazing things.

A/N: Likey, no likey? Please let me know!! I really want to know!! And constructive criticism would be great!!

Anna xx


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